Young Poet Brilliantly Slams Ed-Cruelty

September 29, 2013 //

This is a stirring, eloquent poem at a
slam in Boston, by a young man whose sister teaches new immigrant
children. After one year in a new country, they must take
standardized tests in English. If they fail, their teachers fail.
This is madness. Listen for three minutes and hear his vivid
imagery of cruel Federsl policy

Categories NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top

31 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

ira shor says:

September 29, 2013 at 9:35 am

Wow, brilliant, passionate, explosion of righteous anger and irrefutable truth…please view this testimony to kids and teachers.

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- chemtchr says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 11:17 am
  
  It did bring tears to my eyes. Of rage, I think.
  
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Robert Rendo says:

September 29, 2013 at 9:53 am

ELL’s were exempt from standardized testing for 5 years, based on 2nd language acquisition research. . . . as in about 70 years worth of it.

Then under GW Bush, it was reduced to 3 years in his first term. In his second term, it was reduced down to 1 year. Under Obama, it remains where Bush left off.

If someone who has never spoken English before does poorly, they are labeled as such as are their teachers. While research has shown tha rigorous, robust programs that engage ELL’s dramatically improve and accelerate their acquisition of English, this is not at all the same as saying that it prepares them for taking tests of this nature. This leaves us with an inevitable conclusion that the metrics used to measure ELL’s are mostly wrong and inappropriate, and furthermnore, they mischaractierize such children and the quality of their teachers’ pedagogy with dire, unfair, and inequitable consequences.

We should either support ELLs properly or rethink their education altogether and say that the emperor’s clothes are just fine and fitting.

To not support ELLs according to real research and excellent funding is just another form of high gloss, institutionalized racism. . . . a veritable colonialism within our own borders . . . .

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- Robert Rendo says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 9:54 am
  
  Sorry for typos and lack of editing. .. was writing in my usual rush.
  
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- Duane Swacker says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 10:47 am
  
  Robert,
  
  If I may amend your statement: “This leaves us with an inevitable conclusion that the metrics used to SUPPOSEDLY measure NOT ONLY ELL’s BUT ANY STUDENT are COMPLETELY wrong, INVALID, UNETHICAL and inappropriate, and furthermnore, they mischaractierize such children and the quality of their teachers’ pedagogy with dire, unfair, and inequitable consequences.”
  
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  - Robert Rendo says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 2:01 pm
    
    Yes. .. I am very open minded to that, Duane. How could anyone not be? There’s just too much testing and too many wrongful and inaccurate, non-empirical stakes attached to the tests. . . . not to mention the costs to districts and the profits to testing companies and consultants.
    
    In a way, the situation may be perceived to have a more intense shade of perversion for ELLs given the fact that they are still playing language and culture catch-up. Still, all children are harmned in slgithly different ways. They all have the common denominator of crony-capitalism, fascist policies.
    
    You know, this pop-up “Follow Diane Ravitch’s blog” window pops up over this comments window, and I can’t see all my lettering, so sorry if there are any typos. This happens on my i-pad. So annoying!
    
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  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 9:07 pm
    
    Until we attack the educational malpractice beast at its heart which is educational standards and standardized testing we will be fighting a losing battle.
    
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- title1texasteacher says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 6:59 pm
  
  I have a student taking the Psat in a few weeks. She speaks Arabic and has been in the country 1.5 years. She is now in my 9th grade mainstream class. She was not really pushed in the newcomer center and now shecan still barely write a sentence. As someone who speaks three languages and also teaches a foreign language in addition to a core class I find this shocking. They need to hold bilingual and newcomer teachers accountable besides the regular core teachers.
  
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Sev says:

September 29, 2013 at 10:00 am

Excellent and so unfortunately the truth.

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Bridget says:

September 29, 2013 at 10:02 am

I cried as I listened to this speaker.

It reminds me of the children I left behind at one of our district’s highest poverty elementary schools, (93% poverty). I recently became a district supervisor, overseeing some of the federal programs for at-risk students and special education services. I am committed to making sure we do our best to meet the needs of these children. It is difficult to navigate the mandates that on the surface are meant to help students. The reality is that many of these federal and state mandates are in direct opposition to each other. These NCLB and RTTT mandates continue to punish them for not being able to pass these ridiculous standardized tests. Keep raising the bar and miraculously they will achieve. No matter that we are ignoring best practices and decades of research on what works best in education. We have replaced it with the corporate business model.

Who do we blame for the failures of high poverty? Is it really the children, parents, and teachers? Or is it a society that has abandoned them? They start off in life with a handicap that the rest of us will never understand. The rule book created by the “Haves” is never explained to the “Have Nots”. I am getting weary of the corporate raiders writing the education play book. They get richer while my students get poorer. And we continue to place blame at the feet of the victims. Why can’t teachers just work miracles?
I am tired of the game, I just can’t figure out how to make the rules fair…

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Joe Nathan says:

September 29, 2013 at 10:10 am

1 year waiver makes no sense. Are we sure there is a 1 year federal cutoff?

If yes, Is anyone talking with members of Congress about this?

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- Michael Fiorillo says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 10:25 am
  
  Gee, Joe, why don’t you ask your funders to do so? They already own Congress, perhaps they’d be listened to, since public school teachers and their unions are a half-notch below Al Qaida in their estimation.
  
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  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 11:06 am
    
    Hey I’m a public school teacher and I consider myself a half-notch above Al Qaida (whatever that term means) (mainly because of their insistence that their god is better than everyone else’s but then again it’s hard to compare things that only exist in the minds of men and/or women and those in between).
    
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  - chemtchr says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 11:14 am
    
    Guys, take a minute to reply seriously, though, in case somebody doesn’t understand.
    
    Yes, we are talking to members of congress about this. They are afraid to move on it.
    
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  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 12:11 pm
    
    Sorry chmtchr, sometimes I feel like a NUT and sometimes I don’t!
    
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  - Michael Fiorillo says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 12:16 pm
    
    chemtchr,
    
    My question was a serious one. If anyone objects to the facetious tone of the comment, they must forgive me: there’s only so much professional naivete a guy can take.
    
    Mr. Nathan is the Director of The Center for School Change, which on its home page lists the following funders, among others:
    
    – The Bradley Foundation (long-time supporter of right-wing causes and school vouchers)
    
    – The Carnegie Corporation (a major funder of the CCSS)
    
    – The Gates Foundation
    
    – The Joyce Foundation (on whose Board Barack Obama served, and which has been involved in school privatization in Chicago)
    
    – The United States Department of Education
    
    – The Walton Foundation (whose wealth derives from probably the largest-scale exploitation of labor in human history)
    
    Given the political range – from far-right to faux progressive – and assets of these institutions, they might be able to allay the fears of members of Congress, should Mr. Nathan care to speak with them about it.
    
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- chemtchr says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 11:08 am
  
  No, we can’t be sure if there’s an actual federal cutoff. We can’t be sure where any individual mandate actually comes from, or if it really has the force of law the corporate reformers claim. Maybe it was agreed to in a “Memorandum of Agreement” for the RttT, or is a condition of a waiver granted to some entity to gain exemption from some other insane regulation.
  
  We’re herded into the professional development and told, this is a bus, you’re either going to be on it or under it, that train has left the station, this isn’t going to go away, the law now requires us to, you must embrace accountability, and so forth. There’s just a great deal of intimidation, smoke, and mirrors.
  
  In all seriousness, take it upon yourself to fix this. I saw a little girl sit there and literally pull out a little pile of her own hair, a few strands at a time, and guiltily drop it by her chair. Her lips trembled, and her eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t let herself cry outright.
  
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- Linda says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 11:52 am
  
  You do it Joe. Talk to your the people who fund your agency. Get started soon. Less boasting, more action.
  
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  - KrazyTA says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 1:29 pm
    
    Linda: spoken like a true teacher.
    
    Why do I say that? Because with very few exceptions, the many teachers I worked with were doers, not boasters. Talk was cheap. What counted was putting skin in the game.
    
    And making a difference.
    
    Keep posting. I’ll keep reading.
    
    🙂
    
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  - Linda says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 3:45 pm
    
    Thank you KTA…we don’t have time to boast. You are correct..we are busy doing with the help of our many dedicated paraprofessionals. Thanks, as always, for encouragement and words of wisdom.
    
    And typo above…should have read….”talk to your people”
    
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- Green Party Teacher says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 1:50 pm
  
  I’ve seen an illiterate refugee entering school the day before state testing have to participate in the math section. She cried through the entire thing, while the proctor suggessted she fill in any circle. Then that score was attributed to the teacher.
  
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  - Robert Rendo says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 2:18 pm
    
    There are THOUSANDS of stories like this to those of us who teach ESL and ELLs throughout the United States. I hope those who are connected with charters come to realize this. I hope the Obama administration does also.
    
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- Robert Rendo says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 2:06 pm
  
  Joseph Nathan,
  
  The 5 year waiver was based on prominent research that it takes about 5 to 7 years to fully acquire a language. Other cognitive linguists will say 7 to 10 years. . . . but goodness, no one can or should wait that long. With the 5 year waiver, schools were wtill doing plenty of internal, local and formative assessments, diagnostically and summatively to drive instruction. This was nothing new.
  
  When the waiver were shortened, then eliminated, the state and fedearl governments under NCLB and RttT clearly indicated that they were not interested in linguistic research.
  
  If we choose to test our ELLs right away, then we need the appropriate metrics. .. not the standardized factory style instruments used currently. The metrics need to reflect 2nd language acquisitioni research and childhood development.
  
  They don’t.
  
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- Robert Rendo says:
  
  September 29, 2013 at 2:43 pm
  
  Joseph, you’re not exactly not connected. Start making the phone calls and writing the letters. I have. You seem to care about all children, regardless of where they get educated, so why not advocate for among the poorest and most vulnerable?
  
  I am hopeful you will produce evidence and documentation of doing exactly that. People do look to your leadership . . . .
  
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  - Joe Nathan says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 7:09 pm
    
    Robert, I will follow up tomorrow and share here. US Senator Al Franken is on the US Senate Ed Committee, and I will be contacting him. Interested in the experience others have had.
    
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  - Joe Nathan says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 7:14 pm
    
    That is, Robet, I will post my note to Senator Franken here if I am allowed to post. All day I’ve received notes saying “Your subscription could not be activated, it may have expired”. So if I am allowed to post tomorrow, you will see the note I sent to Senator Franken.
    
    Advice welcome about how to deal with those notices. Thanks.
    
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  - Robert Rendo says:
    
    September 29, 2013 at 10:01 pm
    
    Much obliged. i will be happy to send at some point writings I’ve directed to Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. I am in the process now of updating and resending literature to both of them as well as John king and Merryl Tisch up at Albany, New York. I also am sending a letter to the Barack Obama and Arne Duncan, whose disconnect is usually found in science fiction.
    
    Thank you Joseph . . . Let’s see what this draws from Al and others.
    
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  - Robert Rendo says:
    
    September 30, 2013 at 8:48 pm
    
    Joseph,
    
    I have no idea what you are referring to about subscription. One does not subscribe to the Ravitch blog. One just goes on, and comments. The only times you dont’ get posted is if you curse, if you insult Diane or her family, or if you constantly submit things that are lengthy, as in paragraphs and pages. Other than that, you should be able to post.
    
    Can you be very specific as to how you use the blog. You do not need a subscription.
    
    I am confused.
    
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  - Joe Nathan says:
    
    October 1, 2013 at 2:58 am
    
    Somehow, it was resolved. Thanks for asking.
    
    I am working on the letter we discussed.. Can you please share some references re research saying it take 3-5 years to master a 2nd language?
    
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  - Robert Rendo says:
    
    October 3, 2013 at 11:02 pm
    
    Joseph, you can start with these. . . I can get you more. It is actually 5 to 7 years vs. the 7 to 10 years for CALPS acquisition . . .
    
    Read up on Krashen and Cummins. . . . . They are the gurus of language acquisition.
    
    http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/_long_does_take_learn_english_55843.php
    
    http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/cummin.htm
    
    Click to access How%20Long%20To%20Acquire%20English.pdf
    
    Click to access strategies_teach_english.pdf
    
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Kathleen Heaphy Triana says:

September 29, 2013 at 12:12 pm

Yes, this brought tears to my eyes. I teach in a fifth/sixth grade self-contained special education class with ELL students. During a lesson on Friday, I tried to encourage one of my girls by telling her how proud I was of her progress in math. She comes from a large family with hard-working parents who support their children the best they can, both educationally and financially. After telling her that her hard work was paying off and that she was becoming a very good math student, she disagreed with me. Her family had just received her NYS math scores, and her father was very upset that she and her brother were both “level 1” students. There is no way I can explain away this number to this beautiful little girl. I don’t think her parents will believe me when I say that the scores are nonsense and in no way measure the progress this child is making. They believe the state and also believe that their children will succeed if they work harder. So the kids are punished. It is very likely that she will not earn a Regents diploma due to her disabilities, but that shouldn’t diminish her worth as a human being. I am trying my best to bolster my students’ confidence and self-worth. I do this for them, but also for myself. If they give up on themselves, I am lost, too.

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